Pandering to the Biologists

Bioinformaticians seem to be disproportionately represented in the readership of this blog, so I thought you folks might be interested in this blog post. It discusses the public relations problems faced by synthetic biology and raises Drew Endy's (presumably) ironic assertion that the field be renamed "Shiny Happy Biology".

It's probably a good thing the PR people haven't heard of our bacterial contraception plans yet.

EDIT: Actually it's a good thing they haven't heard of most of the weird iGEM projects that Andre has helpfully curated.

Video Religion Survey

I was approached yesterday as I walked across campus during lunch by two guys who wanted to take a "video survey" of my religion. They seemed like nice enough guys and I couldn't think of a good reason not to do it, so I took the survey. I basically told them that I'm not religious although, yeah, I've been to church and, sure, I think it's possible that Jesus was a historical figure. The guys wrapped up their questions and explained they were trying to get a feel for religious attitudes on campus.

Today, I was having lunch in a residence cafeteria (we ran out of bread at home so I didn't bother packing a lunch) and was approached by another guy. He struck up a conversation about the cafeteria food and we went on to talk about the university in general for a while. He was apparently a computer science graduate who was just hanging around after graduation. After a while, he slid a piece of paper my way telling a parable about Jesus and explained how He's more interesting when you "let Him into you life" than when you're forced to sit through church services with your parents.

In some ways, I appreciate the efforts of these university missionaries. I'll give them credit for being willing to approach strangers and start conversations, and I do admire their passion. At the same time, I've never really gotten much out of a religious discussion initiated in this way. For one thing, I'm usually in a hurry when approached in public, so I don't really have time to debate the merits of monotheism at length.

I'm also not really confrontational enough to ask the questions that would start a true theological debate. Instead of asking "but even if we did accept the need for a First Mover, why would such an entity have to be a sentient embodiment of moral goodness? And what does 'good' mean anyway? And what's with the burning bush?" I would usually be content to ask "oh, yes?"

Again, I do respect the religious groups on campus for getting out there and pushing their respective causes. I just wish that one of these days some random stranger will strike up a conversation with me to start a great philosophical debate about intellectual property. Or bioethics. Or cheese.

Mysteries of the Long Lost Folders - Episode 2

Deep within the Majugi archives there lurked a collection of moldy old Word Perfect documents. They contained prose of terrifying ineptitude created for elementary school book reports and high school creative writing assignments.

But amidst those files, there lay one that was a little less moldy than all the others and reeked a little bit less. It was the smallest file, containing a mere 55 words. So without further buildup...

The room was stifling: I couldn’t sleep; could barely breathe. Every time I drifted off, a moth nearby would beat its wings against my window, producing an irritating buzz. Exasperated, I trapped it under a cloth. The buzzing grew louder.

“Die, you damned moth!” I snarled.

It did.

Strangely, the killing didn’t help me sleep.

...which is all well and good. It satisfied the requirements of the eleventh grade English class it was written for (telling a story with a setting, characters, conflict, and resolution in fifty-five words), but it could use some editing, right?

Strangely, the killing didn’t help me sleep.

The room was stifling: I couldn’t move; could barely breathe. Every time I drifted off, a moth nearby would beat its wings against my window, producing an irritating buzz. Exasperated, I trapped it under a cloth. The buzzing grew louder.

“Die, you damned moth!” I snarled.

It died.

...and once again, I've ruined a classic.

Showering in the Dark

Has anyone else ever experienced this? Our washroom has a timed light which can only be set from outside the room... and no windows. It's great for motivating people not to take half hour long showers in the morning, but I keep forgetting to set it for more than five minutes when showering.

So it's 3 am right now...

Sleep deprivation. It's an important topic. Just go to the Wikipedia page on the topic and you'll find some supposed effects of it that are frightening enough to keep you awake for a while.

Yet sleep deprivation is basically a fact of life for university students. For some, it's a point of honor to stay up late (this usually goes with the mantra "sleep is for the weak"). Others are pressured into staying up to finish assignments, cram for tests, or play World of Warcraft. But the fact remains, you cannot function well when tired. In fact, I don't think I can finish this blog post right now. Seriously, I can't do it... come back in ten hours and this post will be jaw-droppingly good. I'm going to bed.

<------- Nine and a Half Hours Pass ------->

Okay, so what did we just learn here? Other than I've lost the ability to stay up late in my old age?

Things become harder when you're tired. Assignments that should take two hours under normal conditions can suddenly take fourteen hours to complete (I have fairly reliable sources that indicate that this has really happened, but not to me personally... my record is about eight hours).

Can sleep deprivation ever help get things done? I think that most students have experienced a late-night essay writing binge at one point that felt remarkably productive. This is usually attributed to last-minute pressure providing motivation to work. You'll note though, that you only get that feeling with projects that have subjective marking schemes: math assignments never get easier with "last minute pressure."

I'm going to throw a wild conjecture out there: when you're able to write an essay quickly at three in the morning, it's not because of last minute pressure. No, it's simply a case of your standards dropping to the point where you become more focused on finishing the essay that doing it well.

"But," you say, "I got really good marks on all the essays I wrote at 4 a.m. the day before they were due!"

I don't doubt that this is possible, because I've also done remarkably well with essays written in the witching hour. There are times when you need to stop overthinking everything and just start writing, and if too much thinking is the problem, sleep deprivation can certainly cure that.

Disc Golf

It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon here in Waterloo, and I've just finished playing a round of disc golf with my sister and her boyfriend. We went to the Chicopee ski hill which, like a lot of other ski places, is used in the summer for mountain biking, hiking, and recreational throwing of plastic flying discs into baskets.

We played the 'easy' course (the hard one usually involves starting all the holes a few meters back), but still spent a significant amount of time searching through the forest for the discs we threw off-course. Especially the yellow ones. Attention disc makers: greenish-yellow disc + long grass = invisible. Still, it was a pretty good time and disc golf is definitely something that's worth trying.

For the record, I lost. I think my score was something like 110 or so, a little over double the record for the course.

Canada Day!

Oh Canada!
Our home and native land,
True patriot love, in every DNA strand...

Okay, so I still have iGEM stuff on my mind, because we're continuing to code away on Recombinatron (see previous post), but it is Canada Day and that calls for celebration. The engineering jazz band is not in fact playing today, but the Water Boys (a cappella group) will be performing twice today at Columbia Lake for anyone in Waterloo (no, I don't sing with them currently -- I'm just a fan). Also, there will be fireworks and other fun. Yaayyy Canada!